...the true measure of success for the OpenSolaris project is the community.

-- Claire Giordano

Developers are responding enthusiastically to the OpenSolaris project as is evident in the activity seen since Sun released the SolarisTM Operating System (Solaris OS) source code in June. User groups, like the Front Range OpenSolaris User Group (FROSUG), are emerging worldwide where users can collaborate and help drive this project in the direction most beneficial for the community.

The OpenSolaris User Group community provides interested participants a mechanism for user groups to contribute ideas, connections and resources to help focus the entire user group effort. As the community evolves, individual pages for each user group and individual user group mail lists will be hosted on the OpenSolaris Web site.

FROSUG is an example of how this process works. Currently, this group is announcing its first inaugural meeting, which is scheduled for August 11th in Broomfield, Colo., on opensolaris.org. FROSUG's first meeting will consist of an introduction to OpenSolaris via a speaker and several Solaris OS engineers, who will answer user questions first-hand. The group's overall goal is to share information and promote discussion on interesting technical topics related to OpenSolaris.

"It's easy to focus on the source, the tools and all the other tangibles involved in open source. But at the end of the day, the true measure of success for the OpenSolaris project is the community," says Claire Giordano, Sun senior marketing manager, OpenSolaris. "It's not about the source code - it's about the conversation."

Participation is key to the OpenSolaris project's success and preliminary statistics are promising. The first four weeks after Sun released the Solaris OS source code resulted in the following numbers:

More than 1.5 million page views of OpenSolaris.org

Over 6000 community members from outside Sun

Over 2800 email postings on 500+ different topics

650 blogs about the OpenSolaris project

"We predict that in the long run OpenSolaris will contribute more to the IT universe than Windows or GNU/Linux," say pilot members Raquel Velasco and Bill Buck, general managers of Genesi, a leading provider of PowerPC-based computing products. "It will take time, but backed up by a consistent corporate strategy, JavaTM, the Sun Grid and a pantheon of bloggers, Sun is destined to boldly go where no one has gone before."

Anyone interested in forming an OpenSolaris User Group anywhere in the world is asked to email Jim Grisanzio at jim.grisanzio@sun.com.

Colorado residents wanting to attend FROSUG's inaugural meeting are asked to email lisa.week@sun.com by August 8th to avoid waiting in line the night of the event. Other inquiries regarding this group can be sent to the following email address: ug-frosug@opensolaris.org.